So you have finally found the courage to go to your local health food store to buy some vitamin D! Congrats! You are on your way to assist your body in becoming healthy naturally. But with so many to choose from, what type of vitamin D should you get? Vitamin D pills, vitamin D capsules or D in a liquid form?
When buying vitamin D, the first thing to remember is to avoid the mistake of buying the synthetic version of the vitamin, D2 , also known as ergocalciferol. Unlike D’s most natural form, D3 or cholecalciferol , D2 may actually cause more harm than good to your body for its processed form, and will not have the same benefits for your health as the “true” D3.
Now let’s take a look at the pros and cons of vitamin D pills, capsules, and liquid supplements.
Vitamin D pills or tablets will be the cheaper and less natural version because they are less expensive to produce. They are also longer lasting on the shelf and keep potent for longer. Tablets which are large can be hard to swallow, and there is no dosage flexibility compared to liquids.
If you have a weak digestive system, you are advised to eat a sufficient amount of solid food when consuming tablets. This is especially true for cheaper drugstore vitamin D pills. It is better to buy high quality names, such as Natural Factors or Now Foods, which will have more shelf- stable pills and will have a formula which breaks down faster and more completely. One example of this, are high quality vitamins which will have beads that expand when contacted with water, thus aiding the breakdown within the stomach.
Note that some vitamin D supplements, especially vitamin D pills, are offered in a time release option. Although some may argue that sometimes to receive the important nutrition value from a vitamin, it is best to slow down the absorption process, this is not advisable for one simple reason. Time-release vitamins have extra added chemicals to make time-release possible, which compromise the original purpose of you taking a vitamin – to enjoy the benefits of natural healing.
Vitamin D capsules are much easier to swallow and they can breakdown faster in the stomach. Capsules are usually more costly than tablets, have a shorter expiry date, but are a better choice than vitamin D pills because of the overall quality of the vitamin.
Some consumers like the convenience of liquid vitamin D drops. This option also works best when added to the diet of a baby or infant. Liquid vitamin D will be more expensive and will have a shorter expiry date. The liquids are also not portable, and will require being stored in a cool place.
The best type of vitamin D can be obtained in the liquid form from cod liver oil, which is also the best source of omega-3 and natural safe vitamin A. However, if you feel like there isn’t enough vitamin D and A within the oil, you can buy the extra vitamins separately if required. These vitamins are also found in cod fish, shark liver oil, or halibut fish oil capsules, but cod liver oil is by far the best and safest choice. Note that usually when there is intake of vitamin D, then vitamin A must also be balanced and the levels raised to follow suit. When it comes to liquid supplements, the time for absorption to take place will be around thirty minutes.
Another thing to remember is to ignore the common misconception that many people have about how effective a vitamin actually is. For example, many people who take multivitamins, may mistakenly believe that the vitamin tablet was a waste and was not absorbed properly because of the changed urine color. Multivitamins containing Riboflavin (vitamin B2) turn urine into a more yellow tone, because the human body takes in the amount of Riboflavin it needs and naturally gets rid of the unused amount through urine. So if you do decide to get a multivitamin containing your vitamin D, keep that in mind.
Furthermore, vitamin D and calcium absorption go hand in hand, so look for vitamin D3 capsules or vitamin D pills and make sure there is a high quality in the brand so that full absorption is possible. In turn, vitamin D3 will help the body assimilate and use calcium, and will raise the calcium levels in the blood to appropriate , healthy levels.
When it comes to daily vitamin D supplement dose, most people do well with 1000IU of vitamin D daily, added to natural foods containing the sunshine vit. Many doctors, including DR. Mercola, recommend raising the dose in the winter months to 5000IU, due to the reduced natural sunlight exposure.
The side effects of vitamin D are extremely rare and are normally not the case for concern. One can only overdose after an extremely high amount of vitamin D, such as over 40,000IU, since we can easily get thousands of IU of D3 from direct sunshine on a hot summer day. Most side effects from normal doses are actually positive ones, like strengthening of the immune system, a healthy heart and blood vessel system, and better bone health. Vitamin D may shows side effects when taken with certain medications, which may block calcium absorption or cause further damage in the body. It is important to speak to your doctor who would check your medications and their combination with vitamin D before heading to the health food store.
